any linux users about?

evening people, we dont happen to have any linux users about the place do we?

if there is would you mind answering me some questions

does it run msn messenger, AOL instant messanger, yahoo messenger, windows media player and MS word? (i hate this im trying to leave microsoft but im still more than likely to be using three microsoft products ) and i know its not really needed but is there any anti virus software available for it?

thank you

 

Windows applications do not run native to linux. To run some windows apps you would need to have the Wine API loaded. Msn Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger do not run on Linux. GAIM is a good open source replacement for those, without the frills. Older versions of WMP will run on top of Wine, but it is somewhat buggy. Word does run when using wine, but with limited functionality. Open Office is an excellent replacement for MS Office and will open and save in MSO formats.

 

ah good, cheers puter_dude, now all i need to do is get round to partioning my hard drive and switching to linux

 

If you want to give linux a 'test drive', download KNOPPIX 3.9, burn the ISO to CD. Boot from CD and check it out. The 'Live CD' installs nothing on the HDD. It will read an NTFS partition but will not write to an NTFS partition.

 

im ahead of you there puter, already got the knoppix, i got it on advice from a TV show and thought it cost nothing to find out so ive been finding out, i wanted to find out what if it could run the things im still likely to need before i went and got the full thing. cheers for your help any way